VINELAND, NJ — New Jersey has been producing strong volumes of high-quality fruits and vegetables all summer long, which should provide a “good lead” into the fall deal, the third and last phase of the state’s long fresh produce season, according to Vince Consalo, president of Wm. Consalo & Sons Farms Inc., here.

A mild winter and early spring helped jump-start most of the state’s produce crops, with many harvested two weeks earlier than normal. Early harvests of many crops continued into the summer.

“There has been pretty Vince Consalo Jr. (right), president of Wm. Consalo & Sons Farms Inc., with his father, Vince Consalo Sr., who is 82 and retired but who stopped by the office in late August. (Photo by Gordon M. Hochberg) decent movement on most items,” Mr. Consalo told The Produce News at the company’s headquarters in southern New Jersey. “The blueberry market was strong, and movement was good. Quality was very good. There was pretty standard movement on all [vegetable] items.”

Perhaps the only downside was pricing, which Mr. Consalo termed “democratic.” The hot, dry summer weather “makes it just a little harder to get the job done,” he noted. But the good volumes and high quality of New Jersey produce items should provide “a good lead into the fall,” he stated.

“In talking to growers, the planting season is starting to get underway,” he said. Most growers are “planning to plant about the normal volume as usual.”

And in contrast to the early harvests of the spring and summer, the fall deal looks to be more in line with past years. “So far this year, we’ve been early on everything — at least two to three weeks ahead of schedule,” said the company president. But for the fall deal, “We’re finally going to be on time.”

That is important, because as Mr. Consalo has said in the past, the fall deal represents fully one-third of the business in the state, although with a somewhat different variety of crops. As he put it during this interview, “What we’re trying to do is let everyone be aware of the variety of items that are available.”

Mr. Consalo provided a sampling of the items that mark the fall deal in the Garden State: “fennel, broccoli, rapini, all the cabbages, all your greens, all the leafy lettuces, all the herbs, as well as the hard squashes, yams, pumpkins and gourds.”

The wide variety of items in the fall from New Jersey can be very attractive to shoppers looking for product closer to home.

“A number of people still think that the Jersey season ends right after Labor Day,” Mr. Consalo said. “The truth is, the [state’s] third season starts [in early September] and will run right to Christmas — even past the first frost.” Cold-hardy items like cabbage can be harvested even when the thermometer reads 32 degrees, he said, and “there’s plenty of product after the first frost” because items such as yams, turnips and Butternut squash are stored.

The bottom line, said Mr. Consalo: “There’s plenty of product available for retailers and consumers who are still looking to buy local product.”